Friday, 19 September 2008

Last week, Cardinal Cormac honoured Fr Reginald Fuller, by saying Mass for him at the Cathedral on Fr Reggie becoming a Centenarian. Here you can just see the Cardinal with our bishops returning to the Sacristy at the end of the Mass of Thanksgiving for Fr Fuller's 77 years of priesthood. Many Westminster diocesan clergy concelebrated and it was a joyful occasion.

The Mass was followed by a lunch for Fr Reggie, attended by his family, friends and fellow-Clergy in the Cathedral Hall. At 100, Fr Reggie is as cheerful and quick-witted as I remember him ten years ago, when he lived near the Cathedral and came to meals at Clergy House. An accomplished, kindly man, known in his time for biblical scholarship, education and much more.

At the lunch, His Eminence proposed a toast to Fr Fuller and thanked him warmly for his long years of priestly dedication and service to the Church in the Diocese of Westminster.

It was an occasion for catching up with old friends, family and priests from around the diocese.

Thursday, 11 September 2008

"I hope you have found your way here from Mgr Mark Langham's blog: "Solomon, I have surpassed thee". When he left for Rome this summer, I took over that blog but we both agreed that I should soon open a new one. This enables me to describe the Solomon blog as The Mark Langham Archive on the Cathedral website. From now on, it will stand alone as a record of several years of his thoughts and experiences as Administrator of Westminster Cathedral.You can always look into it by accessing http://www.westminstercathedral.blogspot.com/You will find it is packed with fascinating things you won't find elsewhere.

This new blog has a very similar URL. The only difference is one hyphen: http://www.westminster-cathedral.blogspot.com/ I hope you will bear with me as I get into the swing of blogging. My sole purpose is to share a bit of current information about the life of the Cathedral - things I become aware of as one of the Cathedral Chaplains, "living" - as Prince Philip once said of Buckingham Palace - "over the shop".

On Wednesday, 10 September, The Administrator, Canon Tuckwell blessed the newly-installed mosaic of Cardinal John Henry Newman. It is located high on the wall to the left of the Chapel of the Holy Souls.

About Me

I was ordained at 50 in 1992. My working life had been spent as an advertising copywriter (25 years). For 11 of my 16 years as a priest I have been a Cathedral Chaplain. For the rest, I have been a Parish Priest in Kensington and in Ashford, Middlesex. I am far too fat. I don't think the saints ever were,except Thomas Aquinas. That bothers me! I grew up in Devon in the 1950s. I saw the future Queen (Princess Elizabeth) when she opened Princesshay in Exeter. We had a day off school to wave.